Today’s post from the Center for Action and Contemplation includes an excerpt from adrienne maree brown’s book We Will Not Cancel Us: And Other Dreams of Transformative Justice (Chico, CA: AK Press, 2020), 76–77.

There’s great compassion and wisdom in her words below. May we not cancel ourselves and one another. …

Writer and activist adrienne maree brown normalizes making mistakes and working towards accountability instead of “canceling” others:  

“We will tell each other we hurt people, and who. We will tell each other why, and who hurt us and how. We will tell each other what we will do to heal ourselves and heal the wounds in our wake. We will be accountable, rigorous in our accountability, all of us unlearning, all of us crawling towards dignity. We will learn to set and hold boundaries, communicate without manipulation, give and receive consent, ask for help, love our shadows without letting them rule our relationships, and remember we are of earth, of miracle, of a whole, of a massive river—love, life, life, love.  

We all have work to do. Our work is in the light. We have no perfect moral ground to stand on, shaped as we are by this toxic complex time. We may not have time, or emotional capacity, to walk each path together. We are all flailing in the unknown at the moment, terrified, stretched beyond ourselves, ashamed, realizing the future is in our hands. We must all do our work. Be accountable and go heal, simultaneously, continuously. It’s never too late. 

We will not cancel us. If we give up this strategy [of canceling], we will learn together the other strategies that will ultimately help us break these cycles, liberate future generations from the burden of our shared and private pain, leaving nothing unspeakable in our bones, no shame in our dirt.  

Each of us is precious. We, together, must break every cycle that makes us forget this.”

For the full post see: cac.org/daily-meditations/confession-not-cancellation/